Preventing childhood obesity isn’t only about diet, nutrition and exercise. A component of preventing childhood obesity is staying healthy. One way to stay healthy is to teach your child early about good hygiene and creating good habits early. Things like brushing their teeth daily preferrably after every meal but once in the morning and then again at night before bed, washing their face and body, especially behind their ears which a lot of people forget and think is not necessary, are common.

One area that may surprise you are practices that should be used when using the bathroom. In addition to making sure that they wipe in a direction that is going away from their private parts after a bowel movement, many kids are not instructed to keep wiping until the tissue is clean. Another more recent practice which I learned while watching Dr. Oz, is that all of us should close the tiolet lid before flushing the tiolet. This insures that all of what is in there stays there and goes where we want it to go.

While watching this same program a woman along with the audience were shocked to find that Dr. Oz found E-Coli on her rubber cell phone case. It appeared as if she hadn’t washed her hands after using the bathroom. But Suze Orman asked her about it and she had washed her hands. Dr. Oz then explained that fecal matter can move out of the tiolet when we flush and this is why we should keep the tiolet seat down.

I really do believe this is very possible. We tend not to believe things unless we can actually see them physically. But just because we can’t see it doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. There was a study done to see how clean people’s tooth brushes were. Fecal matter was found on tooth brushes that were stored in the bathroom without a cover. So it is very possible that the force from flushing can send this stuff flying all around. This would be a good practice for us all not just kids.